Microsoft’s workplace software could face tailored competition rules in Britain under a proposal that would bring products used by millions of workers within the country’s digital-markets regime.
The Competition and Markets Authority on October 16 proposed designating the company’s business-software ecosystem as having strategic market status. It is seeking responses before making a final decision, which is due by February 2027.
The designation would not itself establish wrongdoing. It would give the regulator a route to consider specific conduct requirements or pro-competition interventions, each subject to the relevant legal tests.
The CMA’s provisional assessment covers five areas: computer operating systems, productivity suites, security software, server operating systems and relational databases. It says switching barriers, commercial practices and integration advantages help sustain Microsoft’s position.
Its accompanying roadmap identifies questions rather than settled remedies. These include whether customers can freely choose alternatives to Copilot, whether security-product bundling restricts choice, and how licensing affects the cloud services on which organisations can deploy software.
Businesses and public bodies have until 5pm on November 13 to respond. Microsoft has confirmed that it will not use confidentiality provisions to prevent parties participating in the consultation, according to the case record. Respondents must still identify confidential information and provide a publishable version.
The regulator separately reported progress from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services in reducing obstacles to switching cloud providers. That engagement remains outside a formal strategic-market-status investigation into cloud services; it is not the same proceeding as the proposed business-software designation.
The immediate decision for the CMA is whether Microsoft meets the designation tests. Any detailed rules governing how its products must work together would require further action.
